More Beetles 



Now what do the two well-sinkers eat, 

 during this long period, to keep up their 

 strength? Nothing, absolutely nothing, we 

 are told by the two guests in my apparatus. 

 Neither of them appears looking for food 

 on the surface of the pie-dish. The mother 

 does not leave the bottom for a moment; the 

 father alone goes up and down. When he 

 comes up, it is always with a load of rubbish. 

 I am warned of his arrival by the hillock 

 which shakes and partly crumbles under the 

 impetus of the navvy and his load; but the 

 Beetle himself does not appear, for the 

 mouth of the erupting cone remains closed 

 by the plug ejected. Everything happens 

 in secret, sheltered from the indiscretion of 

 the light. In the same way, in the fields, 

 any burrow in process of construction re- 

 mains closed until it is quite finished. 



This, it is true, does not prove the abso- 

 lute absence of provisions, for the father 

 might go out at night, collect a few pellets 

 in the neighbourhood of the shaft, push them 

 in, go indoors again and shut up the house. 

 In this way the couple would have enough 

 bread in the larder to last them for a few 

 days. This explanation must be abandoned, 



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